Looks like a Pittsburgh man was arrested for openly carrying, based on a Pittsburgh ordinance that’s pretty clearly unlawful. Open carry is forbidden without a license in a City of the First Class (i.e. Philadelphia), but that’s actually part of Pennsylvania Law, not a city ordinance. Pittsburgh apparently decided it needed such a law too, and just passed it, in violation of the proscription of the state legislature. I guess they don’t like the fact that under state law, Pittsburgh isn’t a first class city.
Month: June 2008
What Does It Say About Republicans?
Tam points out that half of our Heller dissenters were put on the bench by Republicans. By any measure, shifting the federal courts more toward the center has actually been one of the Republican party’s most stellar achievement, and even here, the best we can really say is “Well, Republicans tend to get it right about half the time.” Really, the federal judiciary should be owned by conservatives right now, but it isn’t. Yet moving the court rightward has been an accomplishment.
Republicans: even doing our best work, we’re still pretty damned incompetent.
Women’s Empowerment
They say a picture is worth 1000 words. Well, Breda has a picture that I think basically defines women’s empowerment. That’s one women who’s not going to be satisfied wearing the hijab for long. This is the kind of cross-cultural pollination that will end up freeing individuals from the burdens of their cultures.
The principles of The Enlightenment, that are manifested in this nation’s founding documents, are among the most subversive and radical ideas that have ever been put to paper by man. They are more powerful than entire armies. Plant the seed, and they will grow, and there will be nothing that traditional societal power structures can do to stand in their way.
Small Town Gun Bans
Morton Grove has joined Wilmette in suspending its gun ban.
Morton Grove Mayor Richard Krier said the village would comply with the law.
The Heller dominoes are falling. One thing I hadn’t considered in all of this is that many of these Chicago suburbs have far less financial resources than Mayor Daley has at his disposal. These towns may have been happy to maintain handgun bans as a symbolic gesture, as “an expression of the kind of community we want to be.” But when it comes to actually spending tax dollars to fight a case in federal court, potentially all the way to the United States Supreme Court, I think they might just decide to fold rather than fight.
UPDATE: More here.
Agenda Totally In Tact
The “slippery slope,” however, is now gone. The U.S. Supreme Court took it off the table yesterday in their D.C. v. Heller opinion. Government is now barred from “taking away” the guns of law-abiding Americans.
Because of this Court decision, proposals such as Brady background checks on all gun sales, limiting bulk sales of handguns, restricting access to military-style assault weapons, and strengthening the power of law enforcement to shut down corrupt gun dealers can now be debated on their merits without them being seen as a “first step on the road to gun confiscation.”
Yeah, except the slippery slope argument was only ancillary.  I’m still going to argue that you’re wrong, and that the laws are unconstitutional. This changes nothing for us, but it does change a lot for them. Now all these proposals have to answer to a very high level of scrutiny, because, you see, they infringe on fundamental constitutional rights. Time will reveal this.
Wilmette, IL Suspends Handgun Ban
Well, this is one way to kill lawsuits based on standing. But hey, if towns start shedding their handgun bans based on Heller, I don’t see how that’s not a good thing. Do the Brady’s still want to keep calling this a victory? Bryan Miller? Mexico is calling.
Post Heller Offensive
NRA has filed suit in California, Chicago, and several of its suburbs:
The San Francisco lawsuit challenges a local ordinance and lease provisions that prohibit possession of guns by residents of public housing in San Francisco. NRA is joined in that suit by the California Rifle and Pistol Association and the Citizens Committee for the Right to Keep and Bear Arms.
The Chicago case challenges a handgun ban nearly identical to the law struck down yesterday in Washington, D.C. The other Illinois suits challenge handgun bans in the suburban towns of Evanston, Morton Grove and Oak Park.
All five suits raise the issue of the application of the Second Amendment against the states through the Fourteenth Amendment, known in constitutional law as “incorporation.†Because Washington, D.C. is not a state, incorporation was not specifically addressed in yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, but the decision did repeatedly equate the Second Amendment to the First and Fourth Amendments, which have applied to the states for 80 years.
We have won the battle over the meaning of the second amendment. Now we begin the battle over incorporation. NRA’s strategy, no doubt, is to try in several federal circuits as to have the maximal likelihood of success in at least one of them.
Hey NSSF – Research This
With the “common lawful use” test spelled out in the Heller decision, we’re going to want to eventually challenge the bans on assault weapons in California, New Jersey, Massachusetts, New York, Hawaii, Maryland and Connecticuit. In order to do that, we need more than anectdotal evidence that AR-15s, and various other firearms outlawed under these state bans are, in fact, quite common, and are of the type protected by the second amendment.
So now that you’ve spend a lot of time and energy researching the decline in hunting, why don’t we think about ways to get our friends in California and New Jersey contributing to Pittsman-Robertson again by sending copious amounts of .223 and 7.62×39 downrange?
What Regulations Are Reasonable?
Randy Barnett has discusses some thoughts. By this standard he proposes, governments must allow some form of carrying a firearm for self-defense. They may be able to regulate, and license certain manners of carrying a firearm, but there must be some means to allow for the right to happen.
I look forward to one day carrying a firearm down the streets of New York City should this come to pass. I think it will happen in my lifetime.
Helmke Endorses Concealed Carry?
Did he really say that? Why, yes, he did say that. At American-Manifesto:
“Right to carry states are 48 of the 50 states right now…If there are clear restrictions on people [felons and the mentally ill] and to make sure that they know what they’re doing with the gun, that they pass the background checks, that the local police have signed off on it, that’s something that doesn’t cause that many problems.” [emphasis added]
Are the Brady’s retreating on concealed carry? Can you believe he even said that? I guess he was tired indeed, or maybe the Montezuma was getting to him.